FIX: Internet Explorer fails to refresh recent pages

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming), versions 3.0, 3.01, 3.02

SYMPTOMS

When navigating back and forth between pages, version 3 of Internet Explorer may fail to display the most up-to-date version of a Web page. This problem occurs even when Internet Explorer is set to check for newer versions of stored pages every visit to the page. However, when this setting is applied, pages reflect updates on the server after four other pages have been visited.

CAUSE

As an optimization, Internet Explorer 3.0 maintains a four page cache of the most recently visited Web pages. When switching between pages in this memory cache, Internet Explorer 3.0 inspects only the expiration time of the top-level document in the Browse window. For a page containing frames, only the highest level page with the <FRAMESET> tag is tested for expiration.

This problem also affects expiring images in a single HTML page. When switching between pages in the four-page memory cache, Internet Explorer does not check for the expiration of any inline image files.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been corrected in Internet Explorer 4.0.